Thursday, February 23, 2017

I kind of have a love-hate relationship with Christopher-Sebastian
McJetters. On the one hand, anyone who knows him through social media knows
how thoughtful, engaging, witty, unique and just generally fiercely honest he
is. On the other hand, Christopher-Sebastian could post, “Hey, all, I’m going
to get an iced tea,” except it’ll be worded much more amusingly and
unforgettably than that, he’ll manage to expose some greater truth about the
world in his stated desire to get an iced tea and it’ll end up with 15,692
likes, 3,455 comments, 7,211 shares as well as a fair share of haters whom he
will dispatch ever so expertly and efficiently. He’s a damn ninja. Oh, yeah. A week later, the thread will still be
active. Sometimes I will be on my Facebook feed and a thread of his from a
month before will show up, people still commenting. This guy moves people. His seemingly boundless
charisma and intelligence kind of makes me hate him because I’m petty and my
envy can make me ugly but 99% of me adores
Christopher-Sebastian. That remaining 1% can take a seat.

To me,
Christopher-Sebastian is part verbal surgeon, part provocateur and the elegance of
his dexterity leaves me in awe; he is also an entirely modern creation, a man
who uses his fabulous brain, incredible communication skills and big ol’ heart on social platforms to help shift the world in a more just, compassionate,
intersectional direction. He’s just the best. Seriously. You could support
his tireless outreach efforts here
and check out one of his filmed talks here.
Swoon. I am honored to feature
Christopher-Sebastian McJetters as this week’s Vegan Rockstar.

1. First of all, we’d love to hear your “vegan evolution” story. How did you
start out? Did you have any early influences or experiences as a young person
that in retrospect helped to pave your path?

I think all of us probably have some
youthful experience that shaped our worldview and made us more receptive to a
message of veganism in our youth. Whether it was the talking animals in Disney
movies or even our animal companions who became family members or best friends.

Of course, the moment that flipped
me was reading Skinny Bitch in 2004.
I used to be embarrassed to admit to people that that book was my entry point
into veganism because it’s obviously so fraught with some extremely damaging
messaging. But Dr. Breeze Harper
taught me how unproductive it can be to criticize anyone’s initial access, and
I later talked to Carol Adams about it
who told me, “But look at how far you’ve come now. We all have to start
somewhere.” And this really informs my activism today.

For the most part, I try to meet
people where they are with loving engagement and provide them with the kind of online
content they need in order to make better decisions about justice for all
species communities.

The problem is that a lot of people
confuse love with a desire to stay comfortable. I don’t have sacrifice my
emotional well being to center your feelings. And more importantly, I won’t.
But hey—a little from Column A, a little from Column B right?

2.
Imagine that you are pre-vegan again: how could someone have talked to you and
what could they have said or shown you that could have been the most effective
way to have a positive influence on you moving toward veganism?

pattrice
jones does a remarkable job of talking to people about the commonalities of oppression.
As a person heavily invested in black liberation, being taught why animal
liberation should be a part of my framework would have changed my perspective
immediately. I WISH someone had a conversation with me about how our shared
experiences make us collectively vulnerable to violence from the state.

This is why it’s imperative to show
people that oppression does not exist in isolation. We’re all in this together.
And trying to undo oppression against ourselves while consciously committing
acts of oppression against others undermines our work. So practicing solidarity
with the species communities is of paramount importance.

3.
What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate your message as
a vegan? For example, humor, passion, images, etc.?

It might sound like a cop-out to
say, but I find a mixed approach to be best. You have to know your audience. Humor
often opens the door for some people to drop their guard. But passion reveals an
authenticity that can inspire others still. Images have their place too. But
overall, I think we use them poorly. And when I say this, I’m talking more
specifically about graphic images over social media (where most of us create,
distribute, and consume them). Sometimes our over-reliance on them is not
rooted in education, but rather retribution. I could talk all day about the
effectiveness of it and the outcomes. But suffice it to say, I use graphic images
very judiciously. I don’t want to fight physical violence with emotional
violence if I can help it. And I certainly don’t want to re-traumatize
activists who are already vulnerable to burn out. On the plus side, I see some
stunningly great images and memes that make profound statements which don’t
include violence at all. I feel like those have a lasting impact.
4. What do you think are the biggest strengths of the vegan movement?

Inclusion and diversity.

5.
What do you think are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out
effectively?

A dogmatic resistance to inclusion and diversity and an unsophisticated
understanding of systemic oppression. I’m quite frankly frightened by the
number of vegans who don’t understand speciesism, how it operates, and the
importance of proper allyship. They remind me of white people who wanted to
free slaves but don’t think slaves were themselves people, ones who deserve
rights and privileges. And indeed it’s not surprising. Since white supremacy is
the dominant voice in animal liberation, we reproduce white supremacist
outcomes.

6.
All of us need a “why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.

In the not too distant past, we
understood human as a biological classification. We were one species out of
many. But somewhere along the line we adopted human as a political identity, an
identity meant to separate us from—and elevate us above—the rest of the animals
we share this planet with. When we get ourselves back to a place in which we
understand that species is an arbitrary rubric to measure one’s personhood,
that other animals share things like language, culture, society, and emotional
experiences, it’s going to be a helluva lot harder to justify our enslavement
of them. What we do to animals is an extension of what we do to other humans.
This includes colonizing their lands, wrongfully incarcerating them, stealing
their reproductive autonomy, commodifying them and killing them. Animal
exploitation is the bedrock of imperialist white supremacist capitalist cis-heteropatriarchy.
You want to abolish oppression, you gotta include other species. Sorry, not
sorry.

7.
Who are the people and what are the books, films, websites and organizations
that have had the greatest influence on your veganism and your continuing evolution?

Oh boy. This is the space for the
big Oscar speech shout out? Okay, let’s do this. It’s always my favorite part. Aph Ko, lauren Ornelas,
Brenda
Sanders, Pax Ahimsa Gethen, and Breeze Harper are not only brilliant
activists, but they’re dear friends. They don’t just do good work. They make me
feel safe. And to be able to do that from thousands of miles away is nothing
short of miraculous. I can never say enough about Food Empowerment Project and A Well-Fed World. And some people might think I
never shut up about them! But they both do a remarkable job of being radically
inclusive and highlighting shared oppression in a responsible way. Anything
that pattrice has written. Literally anything. Vegan Publishers has become an
incredible powerhouse of vegan and animal rights literature in record time. And
Peace Advocacy Network does
incredible work teaching communities about veganism and rolling out pledge
programs in cities all over the United States.

Books are interesting because a lot
of my animal theory is informed by authors who are not specifically vegan. Of
course The
Sexual Politics of Meat has had a great influence on me. But I rely
heavily on critical race theory to understand how our attitudes toward animals
have been shaped by centuries of imperialism and colonization. I also think
food scholarship provides a wealth of information to study, the history of
social movements, and political science.

I also like hanging out in online
spaces where conversation can occur. Facebook groups like the Sistah Vegan Project
or Animal Rights Zone
(which is also a podcast hosted by
Carolyn Bailey) are healthy places where people regardless of their involvement
in the movement can participate and share resources.

8.
Burn-out is so common among vegans: what do you do to unwind, recharge and
inspire yourself?

I’m as horrible about self care as
the next person. I’d like to say that I do walking, yoga, meditation or any of
those other mindful exercises that people are supposed to say. But really, I’m
a piece a shit who lays on the couch eating junk food and watching horror
movies. I’ve got an unhealthy obsession with fictional violence and bloodshed.
I don’t even want to interrogate where that comes from. Of course, anyone who
has known me for any length of time will tell you I also enjoy being petty.

9. What is the issue nearest and
dearest to your heart that you would like others to know more about?

Animal
liberation, black liberation, and queer liberation are the wheelhouses I
primarily operate in. And they’re huge umbrellas that encompass climate
justice, reproductive justice, and resource consumption. But there’s so much
tyranny in the world that it’s hard not to be touched by a number of issues.
When I’m not focused on those things, I’m deeply troubled by the
under-representation of indigenous humans.

10. Please finish this sentence: “To
me, being vegan is...”

…one of
the most extraordinary acts of political resistance we can undertake.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Yeah, I get it: kind
of a disrespectful way to address a prez but it seemed
appropriate given everything. Frankly, you seem to be someone who likes to let
people know what you think and have no qualms about cutting to the chase, so I
will do the same: the purpose of this letter is to state the obvious (you’re a
dick), but also let you know that I have come to be grateful for your shockingly
horrid ways. Not in the hippie-yogic spreading love-and-light kind of way –
that ain’t me – but that I am grateful precisely for your dirt-bagginess and I am
happy to tell you why.

I’ll start by acknowledging that I am not exactly breaking new territory by
pointing this out but, yeah, you’re disgusting in every conceivable way and
even perhaps some inconceivable ways. Nuns don’t like
you, conservatives
don’t like you, and this
hilarious guy really hates you. Ted
Nugent, however, is a big ol’ presumably malodorous fanboy, which
says something about your standing with the Duck Dynasty crowd, I guess. So I
stand with those with a heart and a brain who know that you are a disaster but,
still, I want to thank you for your glaringly horrible ways.

Stay with me here for a minute. To say what I want to say, I need to give you a
bit of my background. I know that hearing someone else talk about something not
relating directly to you must take the utmost of impulse control for you to sit
through but I will try to make it quick. I’m doing this for the others who may
read this letter. Maybe you can nod off for a bit or find someone to rage at on
Twitter or maybe let Spicer loofah your feet in the White House steam room and
I’ll just let you know when you need to pay attention again, ‘kay? ‘Kay.

A bit of a history…

I was one of those kids who never really understood meanness, which is not to
say that I was ever perfect by a long shot, but I was that kid who was rescuing
bugs from the bullies down the block who wanted to squish them, that kid who thought
racism was, frankly, cruel and stupid, that kid who was devastated when the ERA didn’t
get ratified. I wasn’t an activist until college but as someone who went
through a pretty terrible stage of being picked on from grades fifth through
eighth, I had a strong disdain for injustice that was built into my bedrock
from a young age.

My freshman year of college, I signed up for about a dozen activist groups
(including the Creative Anachronists, misreading their signup sheet as Creative
Anarchists and I was very confused when I was ceremoniously bowed to and addressed
as “m’lady” at my first meeting); I spent the night, or maybe just a couple of
hours, at a student-built shantytown to raise awareness of the apartheid system
in South Africa; I jammed onto a stuffy and cramped bus, rode from Kansas to
Washington D.C. to protest U.S. involvement in Nicaragua, protested and then ate
fried rice seated on the floor of a packed Chinese restaurant with my friends before
we had to rush off to take the long bus ride back to Kansas; spent my weekends
with my radical feminist friends where we made protest signs together, which
was when I first got a real taste for activism.

After college, I remained an activist but became much less interested in
politics. To be honest, my activism was never really about that anyway. Being a
creative type, politics is not my jam. At all. I find it boring, tedious and spilling
over with of the kind of people I don’t like to give much real estate to in my
thoughts. I briefly dabbled in socialism for a year or so after college but
found the cold church basement meetings, endless arguments over minutia and the
aggressively drab wardrobe (yes, I was shallow) to be as or more off-putting
than mainstream politics. So I drifted out.

This is not to say that I stopped being an activist. I didn’t. Look at the name of this blog, yo. But you, Donald,
and your wretched Donaldness have forced me to drift back into the realm of politics again.
And I think I am here to stay now not because I am suddenly interested in politics but because I don't think citizens who care have the luxury of that choice anymore. Our nation’s future is at stake if we don’t start
seriously investing in fixing what is so wrong about this country.

Oh, yeah, you should probably start paying attention now.

So, Donald, these are some of the things I’ve done in the last month or two I
hadn’t done in years previous:

• Added my Members of Congress contacts
– including all their offices – into my phone. Pointer: don’t try calling Dick
Durbin’s DC office. You will never get through. You will best reach someone at a local office.

• Added Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan into my phone as well. Yeah, it was revolting
and I feel like I need to have a smudge ceremony for my poor phone now. I added
Nancy Pelosi, too, and the Congressional switchboard. (This, by the way, is
likely the only way to get through to Paul Ryan: 202-224-3121.)

• I’ve called my Members of Congress so often, I am recognizing voices and at
least one (Team Duckworth’s DC office!) knows me by name now, too. We exchange pleasantries every Monday when he answers.

• I do actions items listed at the following every week: The 65, Wall-of-Us,
5Calls, and all the various email alerts I
get on the regular.

• I started a local chapter of Indivisible. We have met once, we meet
again Saturday to write postcards to our members of Congress and have our
second general meeting next week. (If you live in my area and you want in,
message me!)

• I have brainstormed protest sign ideas with my son and protested.

• I attended the Women’s March with my family and friends and, oh, 250,000 others.

• I’ve been pestering my Representative about when his next Town Hall meeting
is, which sounds about as enticing and exciting as a Socialist church basement
meeting but I am actually looking forward to it. This kind of frightens me as
much as anything but whatever.

I am not saying this to say that I'm special or anything. I am just one of millions who is so appalled by
you and what your administration represents that I am fully over my aversion to
politics and am back in the game.

I am not the only one. I have heard story after story of people who were not
activists until you, Donald. In my Indivisible chapter, neophyte activists
outnumber those of us who have been at protests before. People who have never
been to a protest until recently are giving up their weekends, sitting on hold
with their members of Congress, learning new skills, familiarizing themselves
with how the system works because and they are excited to do so because that is how much your hateful ways have
motivated citizens. You are a crash course on civic engagement, and not just for lefty firebrands like me, but the for grandparents,
centrists, children, and so on, who are all united against you.

You have no idea what you did just by being horrible, Donald. Go you, I guess!

You did what no one else has been able to do: you woke up the masses. It turns
out you were just what we needed – vile, despicable and repugnant in every way –
to see that our country and basic decency were at stake and that we really valued
it. Your racist, misogynist, xenophobic, treasonous, autocratic ways were the fire we
needed lit under us and now you have awakened a sleeping giant.

So thank you, Donald. You are every bit as disgusting as we needed you to be. I'm hoping in the future, things won't need to be this dire for us to give a damn, but it is what it is.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

April Lang is a psychotherapist, Certified Humane Education
Specialist, and longtime vegan based out of NYC. She has always been deeply connected to
other animals and this informs her work with clients. As she writes on her
website, “This connection has expanded my awareness, leading me to
respect and embrace differences, to want to help empower the marginalized, to
find ways to alleviate suffering, and to promote equality.” In her new book, Animal Persuasion: A Guide for Ethical Vegans and Animal Advocates in Managing Life’s Emotional Challenges, April combines her understanding of
vegan activism with her professional guidance skills, helping advocates develop
effective strategies for protecting our psyches in this world that is often
very uncaring about animals. From navigating relationships to managing your
emotions when you see someone in fur to keeping it together when the people
around you are eating flesh, April offers advice for co-existing while not suppressing
your voice. I have not read the book yet but it sounds wonderful! I am happy to
feature April Lang as this week’s Vegan Rock Star.

1. First of all, we’d
love to hear your “vegan evolution” story. How did you start out? Did you have
any early influences or experiences as a young person that in retrospect helped
to pave your path?

When I went off to college, I
decided I would no longer eat animals. I transitioned to vegetarianism slowly,
giving up eating a different animal every few months. Looking back, I can’t
remember why I chose that approach; I can only assume it seemed “reasonable” at
the time. Now when I think about it, I realize that’s the way many people
decide to give up eating animals, and it’s important to support each person’s
particular journey. I must admit that at that time, I knew practically nothing
about animal agriculture; I just knew it felt wrong to eat animals.

One day, many years after I had
given up eating meat, I stumbled upon a copy of Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation lying on the
street next to a garbage bin at my local grocery store. I had heard of Singer’s
book, but had never read it. This was like the universe saying, “come on, it’s
time to get an education!” And Singer’s book was certainly educational, with its
heartbreaking descriptions of the lives and deaths of factory farmed animals. While
the book was incredibly powerful and eye opening, I remained a vegetarian. Apparently
something else had to happen for me to make the transition to veganism, and it
did.

About fifteen years ago, I took a
trip to Farm Sanctuary (the one in Watkins Glen, NY) with some friends
and their dog.Before the end of the
tour, I knew I was going to take that final step towards veganism. Amidst the
beautiful mountains and greenery, were a group of cows suffering with mastitis.
I had never heard of mastitis, let alone witnessed it up close. I was shocked
to see the condition they were in, a result of being constantly inseminated to
keep producing milk for humans. If this was the cost of eating my beloved ice
cream and cheese, they would never again touch my lips. Many years after this
trip, I am still enjoying my “ice cream” and “cheese” – all deliciously vegan!

2. Imagine that you are pre-vegan again: how could someone have talked to
you and what could they have said or shown you that could have been the most
effective way to have a positive influence on you moving towards veganism?

Two things come immediately to mind.
First, if someone had said to me, “you say you love animals, so why do you eat
them?” I actually said that to a friend of mine who spent years doing great
work as an animal rescuer. She paused, looked at me incredulously, and said, “I
never thought about that.” She became a vegetarian that day and more recently,
a vegan. If only all transitions to veganism played out so quickly and easily!

Equally effective would have been
someone showing me an undercover video taken at a slaughterhouse, such as the
one put out by Mercy for Animals', From Farm to Fridge. All I would have needed was the image and sounds of one
animal being tortured and killed to have turned vegan.

3. What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate your
message as a vegan? For example, humor, passion, images, etc.

I have found that to be effective in
communicating my message, I must always take into consideration the
person/people I’m speaking with. I try to get a sense of what they know about
the issue and how interested they are in learning about it. And I do monitor
the conversation very closely, always watching for signs I’m losing them,
either to boredom or overwhelm. I also try to be mindful of other people’s energy,
and will adjust my approach accordingly. At times, I have been quite forceful
and passionate and that resonates with some. With others, I can tell pretty
quickly after opening my mouth that a softer approach is warranted.

Images, whether photographs or
videos, are super powerful. The expression, “a picture is worth a thousand
words” is definitely true.However, it’s
important to keep an eye out for shutdown, as each person has a different
tolerance level for disturbing images. I see that in action whenever I go into
schools as a humane educator. Some of the students are riveted to the screen
when I show an undercover video while others put their heads down as soon as
the first disturbing image appears. So just being mindful of where people are
is really important if you want them to be responsive to what you’re saying.

4.
What do you think are the biggest
strengths of the vegan movement?

One of the biggest strengths of the
movement is the increasing amount of young people being drawn into it. Vegan
and animal rights clubs are turning up in middle schools and high schools, and
students handing out vegan literature, is now a common sight on many college
campuses. When I was in school, there were no animal rights clubs and nobody
was handing out pro-vegan literature. In fact, I had never even heard the term vegan
while growing up. It’s going to be this new generation that will move veganism
to the next frontier.

All the folks who are creating amazing
products, which don’t use animals and animal by-products, are a driving force
in helping veganism become more “user-friendly.” In fashion, companies like
Vaute Couture, Brave Gentlemen, and Olsenhaus,
offer consumers stylish clothing and shoes, while vegan cheeses from companies
like Miyoko’s Kitchen or Treeline, have given people (like me)
a scrumptious alternative to the dry and tasteless soy cheeses of yesteryear.
And let’s not forget those brilliant innovators from Memphis Meats, who
are working on creating “meat” derived from the stem cells of animals (no animals
harmed in the process). Not everyone is motivated by ethics to become vegan. So
if we want these people to jump on the proverbial vegan bandwagon, it’s
important to give them options that taste good and look good. A big reason I
hear for people not going vegan is that they think they’ll feel deprived.The current vegan movement is making sure that
never happens.

5. What do you think are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out
effectively?

I do believe that when we attack
people, shame them, and treat them with contempt, we’ve lost the opportunity
for constructive dialogue. I don’t mean to imply that our messages should never
be conveyed forcibly, because there are times when that’s the only way to make
a point. But just ask yourself, if someone came up to you and started
screaming, calling you names, and putting you down, would you really stay
around long enough to hear what they had to say? Most people wouldn’t. Once
defenses are up, the mind closes down. The cold hard truth must be communicated;
just be mindful of how you’re communicating it.

6. All of us need a “why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.

My “pitch”, if you want to
call it that, is changeable. For example, there were times when I was at my
local gym when someone would ask me how I stay fit. Here was the perfect
opportunity to say, “it’s my vegan diet”, and then go on to explain what that
is. Then there were times when I went out to eat with people at a non-vegan
restaurant and they saw I chose vegan options.That would sometimes prompt one of my fellow diners to ask me why I was
vegan and/or to tell me what they thought they knew about veganism. Here was an
opportunity to do a bit of educating about factory farming. Of course these
situations don’t always present themselves but when they do, I jump on them. I
also look for opportunities to mention I’m a vegan, such as when someone tells
me about the “great” steak restaurant he went to the night before. I might say,
“Oh, I’ve never gone there because I’m vegan.” Sometimes the other person wants
to engage and a good conversation ensues. Other times, the person drops the
ball and I let it go too. If I get even a little inkling that someone might be
interested in hearing what I have to say, I’m ready to engage, but I’m not
going to push the issue if their spoken or unspoken message to me is, “enough
already.”

7. Who are the people and what are the books, films, websites and organizations
that have had the greatest influence on your veganism and your continuing
evolution?

I had thought fossil fuels were the main culprit in global
warming. No, it’s methane, mostly from animal waste, which is the biggest
problem. It’s 86 times more destructive than carbon dioxide. And methane leaves
the atmosphere much more quickly than carbon dioxide – another good reason to
end animal agriculture.

Some of the biggest environmental organizations are
downplaying or outright ignoring the connection between animal agriculture and
global warming. Why? Got to keep the funds coming in from their supporters, a
good many of them being animal-eaters who won’t want to change their ways. It’s
certainly problematic if the big environmental organizations are more beholden
to their donors than to the planet,

A massive eye-opener and a very disturbing one at that –
most organic farms use the by-products of slaughterhouses to grow their crops.
What?!!!!!! I eat all organic and thought all those farms were producing clean
products. Think again. Veganic farming, which I had never heard of, is the
alternative. But those kinds of farms are still few and far between.

My evolution and education continues…

8. Burn-out is common among vegans: what do you do to unwind, recharge and
inspire yourself?

For me, there’s nothing better than
swing dancing to put a big smile on my face. I’ve always loved the music of the
1930’s – 1950’s, so being able to dance to those tunes is a magical experience.
I haven’t a care in the world when I’m on the dance floor.

9. What is the issue nearest and dearest
to your heart that you would like others to know more about?

I can’t really pick just one issue
– every form of animal abuse is what I want others to know about.I suppose if I really had to narrow it down,
I’d focus on factory farming and bear bile farming. I’d choose the former
because of both the horrific and daily torture of the animals, as well as the
sheer numbers affected. And I’d pick the latter because too few people know
about this despicable industry. Most people aren’t aware that the bears are
kept locked in filthy, tiny cages, often with catheters permanently embedded in
their gallbladders so that the bile can be extracted. If they don’t first
succumb to disease, these bears may live in these cages for thirty years –never
being let out. Animals Asia is doing great work to help these bears.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

I don't have a post for you from last week because I spent my time creating this new resource, The Vegan Street Guide for New Vegans. I hope you'll find it helpful and get the word out. Also, feel free to let me know anything not included that should be. Talk to you soon!

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

We shared this on Facebook. We are sharing this here, too. This is our statement of opposition to the new administration but, more than that, our statement of commitment to the future we believe in.

We may lose people saying this. We may not. We really don't care.

Founding Vegan Street,
John and I wanted to create a hub that would help to create a more
compassionate, just and sustainable world. We have been vegans since
1995 and Vegan Street is a natural extension of blending our skills and
passions into our activism. We are proud of the work that we've created
at VeganStreet.com while knowing that there is always work to be done and progress to be made.

The same things that drew us to veganism - our passion for justice, for
creating change, for non-violence - is what compels me to write this
post now. As many of you know, we are based in the United States.
Chicago, to be exact. Chicago was a flashpoint of the most recent
election in our country, used by the new president as a means for
invoking fear, paranoia and stoking the hot embers of bigotry, as well
as deepening the racial divide, among the voting public. Whether he was
successful or not using this tack is debatable but from where we stand
on January 30, he is in office.

We have no interest in dividing.
We have no interest in further factionalizing the public. We have no
interest in demonizing people.

Here is what we know:

We
believe in compassion. This is why we’re vegan. This is also why we are
taking a public stand against the administration of Donald J. Trump and
the agenda he promotes along with that of his cabinet appointments.

We believe in justice. This is why we’re vegan. This is also why we
take a stand against misogyny, racism, classism, religious persecution,
homophobia and any other form of bigotry.

We believe in
non-violence. This is why we’re vegan. This is also why we are in
support of people who are coming here fleeing it in their home
countries. My grandfather was welcomed into this country by himself at
the age of 13. If he hadn’t been, he almost certainly would have been
killed in a pogrom and I wouldn’t be posting this from my warm,
comfortable office today. The animals people eat are the ultimate
refugees without a safe asylum: how could compassionate people like
vegans not extend a life preserver to vetted asylum seekers and
citizens?

Our dedication to justice and compassion is one that extends to humankind as well. We hear you. We are here for you.

No matter your political persuasion, we will provide recipes,
interviews, reviews, tips and more to help you shift away from eating
animals and toward a more compassionate, healthful life. Make no
mistake, though, we have our own political views and, more than that,
convictions about how we want to live in the world.

Vegan Street
exists as the tiniest of bulwarks against everything that Donald J.
Trump and his administration of millionaires and billionaires represent.
There can be no vegan world if we don’t reject the kind of violent,
patriarchal worldview that Donald Trump and his cronies are aligned
with. We believe that creating a more compassionate world – a fiercely
honest, creative, courageous and respectful world – starts with us.